Clemson men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell felt like his team’s most recent loss was only a matter of time.

The story of the Tigers’ season early on has been a lot of offense without much defense to go with it. So when the shots, particularly from 3-point range, didn’t fall against Loyola Chicago last weekend with the same regularity as many of Clemson’s first 10 games, the result was the most lopsided setback the Tigers have experienced this season.

“We got a little bit of what we deserved,” Brownell said. “We haven’t played as well defensively as we need to, and we’ve played outstanding offense. Our offense left us (against Loyola Chicago), and we couldn’t win it with our defense. Good teams are able to win both ways, and we just haven’t been able to do that yet.”

After a week to regroup, the Tigers will get their chance to bounce back Saturday when Clemson (8-3) squares off against Richmond (5-5) in a neutral-site game. It will be played 50 miles up the road at Bon Secours Wellness Arena as part of the Greenville Winter Invitational.

The one-day, six-team event will start at 2 p.m. with East Carolina taking on South Carolina followed by a Furman-Stephen F. Austin matchup at 4:30 p.m. Clemson and Richmond will play the nightcap at 7 p.m.

After coming into the Loyiola game sixth nationally in 3-point field-goal percentage, Clemson went just 3 of 21 from deep and shot just 38.9% from the field. Brownell contributed that more to a night of some good looks simply not falling, directing more of his frustration at the other end of the court.

Clemson ranks sixth in the ACC in scoring defense (67.4 points allowed per game) but has given up at least 71 in three of its last five games. Loyola Chicago, a team shooting the 3 ball at less than 34% on the season, connected on 12 3s as part of a balanced effort that Clemson had few answers for. The Ramblers made 56.3% of their shots in the game.

Not only are the Tigers having trouble staying in front of ball handlers in man situations, but Clemson is struggling to defend ball screens, too. Brownell specifically said that’s been an issue for junior big PJ Hall, who returned to the starting lineup a few games ago as he continues to work his way back from his offseason knee injury.

“There’s just a lot of things,” Brownell said. “We’ve had some trouble with individual defense, some one-on-one stuff. That’s hard because there’s got to be some mental and physical toughness that guys bring. We’ve gotten beat up on some of that.

“PJ, we’ve got to keep working with him. We haven’t figured out our best coverage (on screens) with him yet. We got exposed there a few times.”

Richmond ranks in the bottom half of the Atlantic 10 in scoring and field-goal percentage, but Clemson needs to find its defense if the Tigers hope to get back in the win column.

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